Two for One [Open Audio Network] [Closed Action]

[vernal_miss]

Date: October 21st
Characters: Network Number {235 13 892 33} ; Action for Mary Ann, Ornella, and later Feste

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[Action - Joint with Ornella and Mary Ann]
{Nel} In a family of seven, finding those quiet moments to speak to only one other in the household tend to be rare. As the second youngest in the family, Ornella is not quite old enough to suffer a shift towards a nocturnal schedule like her older siblings, and this provides an opportunity. Slipping from her shared room, she heads out into the hallway and downstairs with one hand clutching to a stuffed toy. For a few days now, a number has been quite intrusive in her thoughts, and regardless of her thinking of it every hour awake, cannot recall the reason it feels so important. When it had popped back into her head before she even opened her eyes this morning, she had lost any chance of returning to sleep for a few more minutes with irritation rousing her all the more quickly.

Reaching the living space, she’s relieved to find a mother present. Bare feet carrying her quickly over the last of the distance, she comes up beside the chair to insert herself into Mary Ann’s space without hesitation, sliding one hand under her arm in semblance of a hug to lean in and bury her face in against her shoulder for a breath. Grasping at the calm granted by the contact, she lifts her head to prop her chin on that shoulder and plead for assistance, “Mum? I remembered someone’s number, but I don’t know whose it is.”

{Mary Ann} "A number?" That sounds familiar. Very familiar indeed. Because there's this number that's been on her mind since yesterday, and she feels like she's known it for a long time but she can't put her finger on where from or what it is even for. It doesn't seem to be a phone number... Perhaps she came across it again while Nel was there? That might be something to narrow the source down with. Assuming it's the same number, even. "What is the number?"


[Network]
“That’s funny… It’s not even ringing,” comes the voice of a young girl. There’s no image to be paired to the audio, but she is certainly not alone.

The voice of a middle-aged woman responds, sounding puzzled. "There isn't even a ceased number intercept message." That's what she had expected, quite honestly. After all the number did not sound like a phone number at all. But it was worth a try... is what she thought.

((OOC note: Mary and Nel will respond unevenly in various threads))

Comments

[Network] [Written and Audio]

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie is surprised to hear new people on the Network, and honestly a little concerned when it becomes apparent how young on of them is. It was bad enough that they already had Kitty as a part of this mess, and she had a feeling that some considered her and Ben too young too. She decides to mix it up a bit, switching between writing and voice to demonstrate Walter's point, making looping cursive spring up on both the phone and Mary Ann's paper

Hello! So the Network can be accessed like this as well, I'm currently writing it down on a notepad but-

"-If I start talking it should come out like this. My name's Sadie, nice to talk to you."

Mind. Blown.

[vernal_miss]

The appearance of the cursive writing on the phone overlaying the darkened touchscreen catches her notice with her eyes widening in surprise as it flagrantly defies the limited use since she typed her number on the phone pad. Her eyes trace the loops to read as it is written out, and the child actually flinches in surprise as a young lady speaks out following that conjunction.

Looking between her mother and the phone several times with her mouth hanging agape, Nel snaps back into thought and leaps to a conclusion based on all the things they have been told thus far, “…hoooh, is this magic!? Sadie, are we using magic?”

Sadie at least cannot see the hope welling up as a sense of excitement takes hold with Nel clutching her toy close at her chest now.

[catted]

"...I'm starting to think that that might be the case." Mary Ann wasn't the one Nel addressed, but she can't keep from commenting that when a type of lettering that very much should not appear on the phone appears just there.

It's ridiculous. Magic doesn't exist. But then, she's a bit out of alternative answers...

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie doesn't respond to that right away. "Erm, it might be. It's a possibility but we don't know for certain. It's kind of cool though. You can send pictures..." A picture of Squash appears on the screen and on the paper looking grumpily at a catnip mouse. "And if you know someone else's Number then you can contact them directly and no one else can read or hear what you say."

Sadie was forgetting something..."Oh! and if someone without a Number tries to look at any messages it either appears as jibberish or nothing at all. I once accidentally handed my Math's teacher a sheet with the Network in the corner and she didn't even bat an eyelid at it."

[vernal_miss]

To hear her mother give the concept credence is all it takes for a grin to split right across her face and let a happy peep of a squeal slip as her shoulders curl upward. As an avid fan of fantasy, she can be nothing less than delighted at the mere possibility of honest magic. Wiggling her feet hanging in the air, Nel contains the desire to jump up and run in circles by instead snuggling in against her mother’s front.

While Sadie tempers the use of the word, the child is convinced until given an alternative explanation. Science is fun, and she enjoys learning about how the world holds itself in a balance that allows life to exist. But magic!

The appearance of the cat on the phone is promptly appreciated wih a soft ‘ooo’ in awe, and she listens to every detail. Private calls or messages are possible, though Nel wonders if she can memorize other numbers well enough to make use of that function. Then, Sadie reveals just how private this network happens to be. Nel becomes still as she stares at the phone with her brows knitting and eyes narrowing slightly before her gaze turns curiously up to her mother, “...but my mum can hear you and see your writing.”

[catted]

Mary Ann blinks as Sadie starts to speak, not because of the words, but because... what an odd feeling. For a moment she wonders if she's going to faint, but no. That's not it. It just feels... hollow, and then a wave of dizziness, and she can hear her own heart very loudly for a second. That's what it is, right?

She's rather glad that she was just sitting down and had Nel's weight leaning against her.

"We both can," Mary Ann agrees. "I assume I really have a number, too, then." She even knows which one. There's really no mistaking.

Well. At least this way she can keep an eye on Nel and make sure that she doesn't get into trouble with whatever all of this is.

[vernal_miss]

Only managing to catch the tail end of her mother experiencing an Echo, unease taints her confusion at the way her mother looks. She seems okay when she starts to speak again, and Nel’s brows pop high as her mother confesses she has a number as well, “Aw, Mum! I wanna know your number too.”

Clearly, Nel was talking too much for her mother to find a good time to tell her about having a number too. In spite of the delay, the prospect is a promising one. Her mother having a Number means they can figure it out together with everyone else on the network, and she won’t have to worry if Nel forgets to tell her anything.

Besides, stories where people have magic tend to be happier when they aren’t alone.

[dragoonrouge]

"It would be a good idea to exchange Numbers." Sadie agrees, "Although if you would like that to remain private between the two of you I'd suggest disconnecting from the Network before you do. You can just rub out the numbers or cross them out tends to be the easiest way to do so." She advises the mother and daughter duo.

Sadie is quiet for a minute before piping back in as he mentions Echoes. "As Walter said, changes can happen but it's hard to pin down the exact causes because it is different for everyone. Just...um, if you feel a hollow feeling and your heart starts to pound harder maybe find somewhere to sit down until it goes, it can be a bit disorientating. Oh, and sometimes the change isn't immediate, it took my eyes a while to change."

[catted]

Huh. That... sounds like what just happened.

Not that she can tell if anything changed about her.

"...Your eyes?" There is a note of professional interest in her voice all of a sudden. That feels like something that falls into her ballpark, at least. Something she should be able to wrap her head around without falling back on such concepts as magic.

Maybe.

"How did they change?"

[dragoonrouge]

"It's probably easier just to show you instead of describing it. One second."

Sadie opens her camera on her phone, switches to the front camera and holds it close to her eye so that her face can't be seen and hits the record button.

"This is what happens to my eyes. It started with the reflection and better night vision and the pupil shape and colour slowly changed." She switches on the flash to let Mary Ann get a good look at how the pupil reacts to light.

"It's the first physical change I got, back when we had the weird Aurora."

[catted]

She considers that. And then frowns if she thinks about the implications. "...Assuming that you don't want to show that to anyone who doesn't have one of those numbers.

If you ever need any medical attention that a doctor might look at your eyes for while doing their examination, you can come to me."

The offer might feel a bit quick, but she's so gotten used to making similar offers, though in a very different context, that it is delivered almost before she thinks about it.

[vernal_miss]

Nel chimes in to vouch for her mother with a soft giggle, "Promise she's super good! Lots of people trust my mum with stuff, even when they don't like any other doctors. One guy told me she's not allowed to retire from being a doctor cause he won't go to anyone else ever."

All the more excited to have seen Sadie looking into the camera for them, she doubles back to express her gratitude, "And your eye is so cool! It looks just like the eyes of the cats we have in the house!" Then with humor she snickers and corrects herself, "Or that have us. More of them like to stay around longer in the winter."

Back to just voice

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie stares, wide-eyed at her phone, and lets herself get caught up in a tsunami of sheer relief. Finally, a solution to something that she had been worrying about since the Aurora.

"Thank you" She doesn't even attempt to hide the relief in her voice when she finally responds. "I would be so grateful if that would be possible."

"Thank you Nel, I'll admit I'm jealous, I've only got three cats. More is always better with cats."

[catted]

"If it becomes the case, just contact me here and we can meet in town and talk about the details." She doesn't want to put identifying information on here, not before knowing more about it.

"And cats just like this household, it seems." She sounds as pleased by that as she is. She likes cats, okay?

[vernal_miss]

Nel outright giggles at the opinion they all share in having multitude of cats around, "Three is still good! And having a number you know around means less surprises." Such as walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night and finding a cat you haven't seen for weeks asleep in the sink.

"Was the picture you showed us one of yours?" They can get back to the network stuff in a moment.

[dragoonrouge]

Very sensible of the woman, especially as she's got a daughter on the Network too. "Of course, I really do appreciate it."

Sadie smiles at Nel's comment, "That is true, and they're all so wonderful I'd never trade them in for anything. I've got three cats, that's Squash, he's the grumpy old man of the trio."

[vernal_miss]

Should Sadie have trouble reaching her mother on the network during work hours for an urgent matter, Nel can always intervene until they manage to meet in person.

“Squash is an ace name!” It’s almost too bad it would not suit the cats they know as well as the grumpy fluff himself. Then again, that name is for that cat alone now. Nel doesn’t care for repetition of names.

“Sadie, you said it took your eyes a while to change. Do you remember how long?”

[catted]

"Are you hoping for cat eyes too, now?" Mary teases her daughter, half amused and half hoping that she's not jinxing something here. Life is complicated enough, Nel really doesn't need strange body parts (her hair is...

...strange enough...) Mary falls quiet and frowns before reaching up to gently run a hand over Nel's intense mass of hair. It had always been a bit of a mystery to them how fast it grew. Just like the mystery of Nel's birth, and that of her blood related siblings.

"...Say, when did the first of those echoes happen?"

[dragoonrouge]

"It took a month for my eyes to change fully. The tapetum lucidum formed first and then over the course of the month my iris coloured changed from blue to Amber, the pupil shape changed, and I went from being quite short sighted to being incredibly long sighted." She explains to the young girl.

Mary's question gives Sadie a moment of pause, this was something that her, Ben, and Walter had spoke of but hadn't really talked about with anyone else... No. She'd mention all of it, it was safer if everyone knew as much as possible.

"The first big Echo for a lot of us was triggered by the Aurora a few months ago. But some of us were talking about it and realised that that wasn't actual our first Echo.. My first Echo was actually in January when I first moved into Mossgate."

"Basically,if you've lived in Mossgate for a while, and there's something just a bit odd that you've felt, or seemingly remember with no context, or even something physical, something that would be considered 'not normal'... That might have been your first Echo, and it could have happened years and years ago."

[catted]

"Well, Nel was born here, and we never moved away." So this thing could have happened to her at any point in her life.

...and technically before her life.

She frowns and looks down on the crown of her daughter's hair, where strands fall out of the makeshift braid. "So anything that has absolutely no scientific explanation, we can just chalk up to this Echo thing?"

[vernal_miss]

The tease gets Nel giggling and she smiles to her Mum to answer with coy humor, “Maybe!” Although she appreciates the prospect, the girl thinks other sorts of eyes are possible - if her own change at all. Brown irises suit her fine otherwise.

Nothing seems amiss to her as her mother runs a hand over her hair, the contact a familiar form of affection. Her hair has always grown more quickly than her siblings, but it had long become part of her normal life with her mothers managing it through a weekly trim. Plenty of girls her age keep long hair, even if she has the largest volume of it.

“So you can see better with them too? That’s neat even if it took a while!!” she replies to the description provided by Sadie. A month is quite long to a child.

Listening as her mother poses a different question that draws more serious discussion, Nel finds she has to adjust her understanding. Echoes have been happening much longer than she realized. It’s about then that she catches on to her mother frowning while looking at her hair, and she lets her confusion crinkle her brow as she looks back at her Mum in a silent question. What is it?

[dragoonrouge]

"Pretty much." Sadie confirms that there really wasn't much more she could say on that. "There really seems to be very few limits to this Echo stuff but it's early days right now."

[catted]

"My first echo probably happened almost twenty years ago, then." It's a slight exaggeration, but not by all that much. It must have happened at least nine months before her first biological child was born...

[vernal_miss]

Twenty years ago!

Making no effort to hide her surprise, Nel shifts to lean away and look more directly to her mother, “That long? Mum, what did you get?” There are so many questions she could ask, realizing this means her mother has had something magical for her whole life as her daughter. She never suspected anything was odd.

[catted]

"I have no idea, to be frank." She shakes her head. "I just know that whatever it was caused something that we always could just assume to be a miracle." That is not a sufficient answer, not for herself, not for anyone, but it's all that she can offer right now - and offer without getting very private.